1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is a system that integrates hazard warning signals and a traffic control system to reduce vehicle and pedestrian collisions, injuries, and deaths at highway intersections by improving safe traffic flow through intersections, and also a method of applying the system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a hazard warnings and traffic signal system that combines bold color symbols with simple word indicia in a plurality of fields on a large, clear display panel, and which enlarges all signals, particularly the red STOP signal, and places it at the bottom of the display panel, closest to the center of the driver's visual field. The invention incorporates principles of modern human factors science, safety engineering, hazard warnings, and ergonomics.
2. Background
The most dangerous machines that most people regularly encounter are automobiles and trucks. People encounter these machines as drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. Vehicle driving combines the highest-level visual tasks with the highest-level risks that most people encounter.
Drivers must be vigilant and aware of their surroundings while operating vehicles, but often, they are not. People cannot be 100 percent vigilant 100 percent of the time. Anything that promotes vigilance to hazardous situations promotes safety. Examples of behaviors that distract drivers include adjusting the radio, using cell phones, picking up items, lighting cigarettes, searching for street signs, tending to children and pets, reading newspapers or other material, eating and drinking, and studying maps. Drivers may become drowsy, weave, fall asleep, eat, drive while intoxicated, and drive at excessive speeds. Still other drivers may stop needlessly and abruptly, apply makeup, run red lights, shave, brush or comb hair, brush their teeth, ogle and flirt with those in other vehicles, gargle, or engage in other types of distracted driving.
Highways have increasingly abundant visual clutter competing for the driver's attention, including colorful advertising, signage, compound traffic signals at a given location, pedestrians, other vehicles, and multiple road signs. Such distractions are typically at highway intersections where drivers must be highly vigilant for people, vehicles, and signals. There is one death and 114 life-altering injuries every hour in the United States at traffic intersections. Traffic safety engineers maintain that intersection deaths and injuries can be substantially reduced by improvements to intersection traffic light systems.
Highway traffic warning signals are virtually the same since first designed and installed in the early 1920s. The existing three-color traffic warning signal was not designed on scientific principles.
Existing three-color traffic warning signals fail because they:                are diversely scattered and inconsistently located,        exclude key safety information needed by motorists,        locate the most important warning signal farthest from the driver's anatomically neutral visual field,        are ineffective for color-blind and color-perceptive deficient persons,        are too small and do not exhort hazards that compel safe driving,        introduce unnecessary distracting visual clutter,        do not comport with current human factors knowledge, visual field confliction, and our aging population, and        are not designed based on human factors experience, ergonomics, modern safety engineering principles, and standard-of-care warnings technology.        
There has been some focus on pedestrian markings, bump and rumble strips, guard rails, roundabouts, street lighting, visibility, speed limits, signage, divided highways, pedestrian islands, and other highway safety engineering. Yet, in spite of these improvements, thousands of people continue to lose their lives yearly in the United States at highway intersections with and without three-color hazard warning control systems.
Over 85 years, traffic safety engineers have not rigorously, robustly studied the effectiveness of intersection warning signals to prevent deaths, life-altering injuries, and property damages. Traffic signal devices need modernization to meet the current level of knowledge of warnings, human factors, multi-stimuli recognition and response, ergonomics, and modern safety engineering principles.
As shown in FIG. 6 of the Drawings, in an intersection of the type where two four-lane highways cross at right angles to one another, it is conventional to use eight conventional traffic signals, with an individual signal for the on-coming traffic in each lane, plus four pedestrian crossing signals at the respective corners of the intersection. This conventional approach provides excessive visual clutter to a driver, particularly when combined with billboards, objects, and other signage. The present eight signals can be reduced to four, and, in some circumstances, to one.
The history of personal injuries occurring as a result of traffic collisions is horrid and preventable. Collisions between vehicles at traffic intersections cause:
1. Numerous foreseeable premature deaths.
2. Numerous foreseeable serious life-altering injuries.
3. Substantial foreseeable property damage.
4. Significant emotional distress for relatives, friends of decedents, and injured persons.
5. Substantial costs to society (emergency response, medical, long-term care, civil and criminal infractions, fines, imprisonments, litigation claims, property repairs, etc.).
6. Increases in insurance premiums.
The following facts, regarding collisions which occur at traffic intersections in the United States, are provided by the National Safety Council and the Federal Highway Administration.
                “Intersection crashes account for over 45% of all reported collisions and 21% of highway fatalities.” 2004 total highway fatalities=42,836.        “In 2003, 9213 Americans died in intersection crashes. In 2004, 9117 died in intersection crashes.” This exceeds one intersection death every hour.        “Reducing intersection crashes is key to reducing roadway death toll.”        “In urban areas, collisions on arterial roads account for over two-thirds of fatalities. Red light running is the leading cause of urban crashes. Better intersection design will reduce incidence of human errors.”        Approximately 3,000,000 intersections exist in the U.S., excluding neighborhoods.        Approximately 2,700,000 intersections do not have illuminated signals.        Approximately 265,000 major intersections have illuminated signals.        Approximately 2,500,000 intersection crashes are reported annually.        Approximately 1,000,000 reported intersection crashes resulting in injuries are reported annually. This exceeds 114 injuries every hour. Complications from such vehicle collisions include permanent vegetative states, quadriplegia, burns, loss of limbs, blindness, disfigurement, etc.        From 2002 to 2004, there was a 4.2% (357) increase in intersection fatalities.        
We must we do more to prevent deaths, injuries, and damage from these encounters.
A number of different traffic signaling devices are known. Examples of some of the known traffic signaling devices include those described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,983,532 (Hayes), U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,395 (Weissman), U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,260 (Liu), U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,407 (Shin), U.S. Pat. No. 6,762,689 (Dechape), U.S. Pat. No. 6,943,698 (Jones et al), and United States Patent Application 2006/0022838 (Fisher).
Although the known signaling devices are usable for their intended purposes, a great need still exists in the art for an improved traffic signaling system. In particular, there is a need for an improved traffic signaling system which will promote improved safety at intersections, and will overcome difficulties encountered with the known art. To communicate the dangers of intersection hazards and to provide reasonable safety instructions, stronger warnings are necessary to grab and hold the attention of drivers to promote safe behavior.